Cuba's dissident blogger Yoani arrives in Brazil

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, center, is chanted at by pro-Castro supporters, accusing her of being a U.S. spy, upon her arrival at the Guararapes International airport, in Recife, Brazil, Monday, Feb.18, 2013. Sanchez has arrived in Brazil - her first stop in a three-month tour of 12 nations. Sanchez was barred from leaving Cuba for the last decade. But she's taking advantage of the communist island's relaxation on travel restrictions. (AP Photo/Hans von Manteuffeul-Agencia O Globo)
— AP

Cuban dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez, center, is chanted at by pro-Castro supporters, accusing her of being a U.S. spy, upon her arrival at the Guararapes International airport, in Recife, Brazil, Monday, Feb.18, 2013. Sanchez has arrived in Brazil - her first stop in a three-month tour of 12 nations. Sanchez was barred from leaving Cuba for the last decade. But she's taking advantage of the communist island's relaxation on travel restrictions. (AP Photo/Hans von Manteuffeul-Agencia O Globo)
/ AP

Still, the exit permit's demise is seen as one of the most significant reforms of President Raul Castro's ongoing plan to refashion some elements of the economy, government and society.

Brazil's most influential magazine, Veja, published a story this weekend alleging that Cuban diplomats were working with Brazilian leftists to organize protests against Sanchez during her stops in the country, where she is expected to stay for a week.

"That doesn't surprise me, it's part of an information war," she told the Salvador-based A Tarde newspaper. "Obviously I don't like it, but I understand that facing this siege is part of my profession."

Cuba's Embassy in Brasilia had no comment on Sanchez's trip. The office of Brazil's president didn't respond to requests for comment.

From Salvador, Sanchez traveled to the nearby city of Feira de Santana to participate in the screening of a documentary about press freedom in Cuba, which she appears in.

Sanchez's tour includes several stops in the United States, with appearances at universities in New York and other academic programs, visits to Google and Twitter offices and time with family in Florida.

She'll also travel to the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Peru, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland, with potential trips to Argentina and Chile in the works.

On Twitter, Sanchez wrote of her trip that "the minutes are as intense as hours. Everything is beautiful!"

On her blog, Sanchez wrote of fellow Cubans offering support in Havana as she boarded her flight and of Venezuelans on the plane who befriended her but asked that she not put their photos online, to avoid trouble with their own socialist government.

After a layover in Panama, Sanchez began the longest leg of her initial journey. Once in the air heading toward Brazil, she wrote, she felt a "sense of physical and mental decompression. As if I had been submerged for too long without being able to breathe, and now managed to take a gulp of air."

"So far everything is going well," she ended the blog entry. "Brazil has given me the gift of diversity and affection, the possibility to appreciate and tell of so many astonishments."